The Ultimate New Year’s Resolutions Guide + Printable Goal List

You can start off the New Year on a bright note by considering the goals you wish to accomplish in 2019! Today, I’ll give you some tips for achieving your aspirations and provide you with a free goal list printable. Happy New Year!

This week is my very favorite week of the year. I start looking forward to it around the beginning of December, when the old year starts to wrap up and the new year draws close! The reason for the excitement? New Year’s resolutions! I know that for some people, resolutions are a cliché. Every year, though, I enjoy making a goal list, and always do my best to complete it! Today, I will discuss some tips and inspiration for coming up with goals that stick, and provide you with a free printable goal list.

Goal-Setting Tips

First, let’s define a goal! A goal is something that you want to achieve. Your goal should have a defined course of action that will allow you to achieve it. Goals are measurable, so at the end of this year, you should be able to say, “OK, I achieved (or did not achieve) this thing I wanted to achieve.”

For about fifteen years, I’ve been making New Year’s resolutions in the form of goal lists. Those years of goal-setting have taught me a few tips, which I hope will be helpful to you!

1. Goals should add enrichment to your life.

As you consider goals, think of how they can add to your overall happiness. For example, let’s say you want to learn calligraphy. Before you write that on your goal list, think about how learning calligraphy will make you happy. Will you use it to address your wedding invitations, which will save a significant amount of money and give you a sense of accomplishment? Or will you use it as a tool to help you decompress after particularly grueling days at the office? Make sure you can name concrete reasons for why you want to achieve your goals, and you’ll be more likely to stay on track!

2. Goals should be obtainable.

It’s kind of like what they say about diets: if you go into overhaul mode, you’re destined for failure. Keep that in mind for all of your goals, health-related and otherwise! Celebrate small milestones along the way, and don’t shoot for a dramatic change. For example, let’s say you want to learn how to work with watercolors this year. You’d start with the basics: painting spheres and cones, then move on to easy projects (like watercolor wreaths), and, finally, attempt more advanced projects!

3. Be specific.

Instead of resolving to “be more creative”, try challenging yourself to make one creative project per month (for example). General goals aren’t measurable, but you can easily keep track of specific goals — which is always encouraging because you feel a sense of accomplishment as you achieve them!

If you’d like to try making one creative project per month, try making DIY matted frames for your photos and artwork! Not only do you get to exercise your creativity, but you’ll also add warmth and personality to your home.

If the idea of making one creative project per month appeals to you, here are twelve tutorials that you might enjoy making (they’re my favorites)!:

4. Break large goals into sub-goals.

Let’s say you have a big goal like “start a calligraphy business”. Wow, that goal sounds like a lot! Once you break down the various steps that you need to take to achieve the goal, though, it doesn’t seem so intimidating.

Why not try starting a calligraphy business this year? Worst that can happen, you’ll lose just a bit of time putting together samples and photos. Best that can happen, you’ll make some extra income doing something you love!

Assuming you already know how to create calligraphy (and if you don’t, then you can always learn), here’s what you might put on your New Year’s resolutions list:

For the past few years, I’ve offered free printable goal lists to those who wish to use one! This year, I’ve used a simple floral theme and George Style lettering to make this printable. Please feel free to fill in the flowers with watercolor and fill out the middle of the list however you wish! Keeping your goal list in a place where you will see it every day will increase your chances of sticking to your New Year’s resolutions.

I hope that you found this article inspirational! Goal-setting is a passion of mine, so I tend to prattle on about it. 🙂 If you’ve never tried making New Year’s resolutions before, give them a go! You will be surprised at what you are capable of achieving!

Welcome to The Postman’s Knock

I'm Lindsey Bugbee

designer + illustrator + calligrapher

The Postman's Knock is a blog focused on teaching creative techniques and offering guides to learning modern calligraphy and illustration. I hope you enjoy reading my blog as much as I enjoy writing it!

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41 Comments

I sent my first calligraphy “arts” to some friends the other day and one of the things was a goals list – or Adventures as my friend calls it. He writes one every year on a scrappy bit of paper, so I wrote his list out in calligraphy and watercolours to decorate the frame. He was most happy!
Thanks for making me brave enough to share my new skill and inspiring me!

This is a great idea and while I have many goals this will be a great way to display them and start accomplishing my goal of starting to learn calligraphy. Have three kids doesn’t give me much time to myself, so I haven’t started yet and this is the year I plan to start.

Lindsey i’m so glad i found your website. I’ve tried to learn calligraphy on my own for a few years but always get frustrated and give up. Your tutorials and Worksheets are so inspiring and i’m learning!!!! Thank you so much 🙂

Hi, Lindsey!
Happy New Year!
The idea to create a list of goals to be framed is more than creative. Every year I begin with a similar list but it’s easy to forget it in my regular notebook. Last year I began to use de BuJo system and my goal-achievement improved but I haven´t reached at least 20% of them. To transform the list in a beautiful piece of artwork, and place it in a visible place, seems to be a great idea to stay focused the whole year round. Thanks again.

I like what you said about goals adding enrichment to your life. I’ve lost that habit of setting new goals every year because I often start out making goals that are way too big. The questions you listed are really helpful as well! I’ll have to sit down to think of some goals for 2019!

Happy New Year, Lindsay!
I want to say thank you for all you have created and shared for people especially beginner calligraphers like me!
I wish you would continue your beautiful work and bless others 🙂

Although I don’t generally do the “new years resolutions”, I’m inspired by your blog and really it does make sense to set some goals!!
I love the work you do and really appreciate the time you put in to create and share with us, especially now that you are a new mom! Thank you!!

Happy New Year!! Definitely a lot to ponder to put into words my goals for 2019. I find that writing things down in pencil or pen helps me focus on things and working through my answers for the list of questions you posed will definitely help.

My husband asked me the other day what I wanted to achieve in 2019. I was struck by how I didn’t have an answer. Then this post shows up in my inbox, like magic! You have such insightful and thought-provoking ways of tackling what is seemingly a huge prospect…. “what do I do?” So, after thinking for a bit, I’m going to take a half-hour every other day to work on the Kaitlin letterforms and get my bounce going! The worksheets are all ready to go and I even have a friend of mine who, when I shared my new goal with her, asked me to calligraph a little quote for her. Project! Thank you so much, Lindsay. And, as a new-ish mom myself, you’re doing AMAZING things!

I’m so glad that I could help! And that you are taking the time to work on this as a mom … sometimes, it’s just so easy to get caught up in little kid stuff that you don’t pursue “me time”. I always know I’m deviating too far from the things I enjoy doing when I start to get grumpy and short with Remy and Hernán! In short, I think it makes you (well, me, at least) a better mother and partner when I’m pursuing goals. 🙂